


Moment Twelve

by AlphaMercy



Series: Snippets [12]
Category: Borderlands
Genre: M/M, all aboard the angst train!, enjoy your stay in pain villa!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-08
Updated: 2016-08-08
Packaged: 2018-08-07 13:08:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 682
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7715980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlphaMercy/pseuds/AlphaMercy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"The way you said 'I love you'" and "A scream"</p><p>Rhys <em>needs</em> to find Jack, there's nothing but blood and twisted metal, and the gnawing sense of <em>it's not okay</em></p>
            </blockquote>





	Moment Twelve

**Author's Note:**

> this is pure, unadultured angst, purified through the labor of my tears and saddness.  
> also this can get p graphic.  
> enjoy

There’s a sudden quiet and Rhys feels the swell of something heavy and tiring and terrifying in the air, pressing down on shoulders slim as willows branches. The heat stifles his breath, a lungful a wasted effort. There’s nothing but the sirens and the metal as he runs, the acrid smell of smoke and the iron tang of blood that burns his nostrils when he tries so desperately to inhale.

He chokes and coughs, stumbling over warped, twisted bodies, hot blood soaking through his one sock-clad foot, the other still safely ensconced in his skag-leather shoe. He tries not to look at the ripped and burned flesh, the singed clothing and mutilated faces.

It’s _dontlookdontlookdontlookdontlook_ and _where’sjackgottafindjackneedtofindjack_ and _whereisheicantseehimcantbreathwherewherewherewhere_ on a loop in his mind, nothing but the need to find his husband and make sure he was alright driving him forwards. He has no care for the moaning, dieing people he steps on and over and into as he propels himself forth.

All he needs and wants is Jack; Jack who had been across the Hub getting those crepes Rhys loved so much; the ones with the strawberry and chocolate filling and the whipped cream on top.

Jack who had been wanting to head back to the penthouse because the two had been so busy lately.

Jack who was nowhere to be found, though Rhys screamed and screamed and _screamed._

Jack whose jacket was shredded, splattered with blood and ash, hanging off a sideways table and fluttering in whatever breeze Rhys couldn’t consciously feel.

His heart pounds and he launches himself forward, landing on already-bruised knees. There is pain, but he ignores it, grasping at the jacket like it’s a fucking lifeline, because there’s nothing else he can see that can save him from the swirling doubt and agony of _Jack’s not here i can’t find him oh god what if he’s dead?_

But then there’s a moan and a croaky, half-stuttered _“Rhysie?”_ and his heart stops and starts and soars and drops.

“Jack? Jack oh god!” He scrambles towards the voice, finally noticing the the body half covered in the rubble of the pastry store. It was Jack, dusty and bleeding but alive.

“Hey kiddo,” Jack slurs, one hand lifting up towards Rhys’ face, the other trapped under debris.

Rhys reaches out, touches Jack’s face gently, as though if he even brushed the man’s cheek too hard he’d shatter. There’s a slight trail of blood from the corner of his mouth, and a larger one on the right side, moving sluggishly from his temple.

“Jack. Jack you’re gunna be okay. We’re gunna get you fixed, okay? Just don’t—don’t leave me, _please_ oh god don’t leave me.” There’s desperation and agony in his voice, he sounds so weak. But Rhys doesn’t give a fuck, all he wants is for his husband to survive and to kill the fuckers who cause this.

“Kid, kid look at-” Jack has to pause, coughing and hacking, blood where there should be just spit and bile, “Rhys. We know I ain’t gunna make it. So you fuckin’ do your goddamned best to find these skag shitstains and take them out. You run Hyperion from now on, kiddo.”

Rhys can do nothing but shake his head, ignoring what can only be the growing puddle of Jack’s blood seeping into his pants.

“ _No._ No, no no no. You know I can’t do this without you Jack!” But Rhys can see the signs already, the coughing and the choking, the struggle for each breath, the slurring and the weak grip. Jack is fading away and there’s fucking _nothing_ he can do.

Jack takes a shuddering breath and Rhys can feel the heartbreak start to set in.

“Jack! Please, god oh please no! I love you! You-you can’t fuckin’ leave, not yet you asshole, please please please!” He yelling, but Jack can’t hear him, gaze blank and body limp as Rhys cups his face, shouted words blurring into one another. There’s nothing and no one. Just the destruction and death and blood, the falling ash a mockery of snow.

**Author's Note:**

> [my tumblr](http://handsomejackisback.tumblr.com/)


End file.
